I heard about this movie before I watched it.
The Passion of Joan of Arc, a boring title for an incredible movie, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer in 1928. The first time I saw it was in a class, and our professor told us some stories about it first, so we would care about the film. For some reason, I always found the stories she told disturbing - and thinking about them and watching the film is haunting. The first thing she told us about was about Renée Jeanne Falconetti. The actress suffered so greatly during the filming of the movie, both physically and emotionally. She only watched the film once, and afterward, she was so traumatized by her own suffering that she never acted again. Her own image upset her that deeply, we were told. Then, we heard about the prints of the film being destroyed. It was thought lost for years, never assembled as the director intended - until it was found in closet in a mental institution, and the version we watch today is from this print.
